


In the End

by MikuniOrikoIsBetterThanYou (Idestroyedtheworldoops)



Category: Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magika | Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Mahou Shoujo Oriko Magica | Puella Magi Oriko Magica
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-07
Updated: 2015-01-07
Packaged: 2018-03-06 12:25:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,012
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3134417
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Idestroyedtheworldoops/pseuds/MikuniOrikoIsBetterThanYou
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mikuni Oriko saw this coming.<br/>(Post-Rebellion, Oriko-centric one shot)</p>
            </blockquote>





	In the End

**Author's Note:**

> Just a warning - if you ship MadoHomu/ support Homura's choices in rebellion/etc., you probably don't want to read this. You might be upset.

Akemi Homura didn’t know what to make of it. She hadn’t encountered the green-eyed magical girl since the singular timeline in which they fought. She certainly didn’t remember writing her into her new world. And yet, there she was on the other side of the room, as if she’d been going to school there all year. 

As the students dismissed, Mikuni Oriko took a deliberately long time collecting her things, waiting until only she and one other student remained in the room.

"Akemi-san." She said calmly. "May I speak to you for a moment?"

The other girl didn’t look in her direction. “No, I have to meet someone in a few minutes.” She walked toward the door. 

"How many time loops did you end up going through, Akemi-san?”

The dark haired girl froze. She turned around slowly. “What are you doing here?”

Oriko’s eyes darted to Homura’s earring, and the glittering pink gem hanging from it.”I was wrong, Akemi-san. I shouldn’t have killed Kaname Madoka.”

She looked up. 

"I should have killed you."

Homura narrowed her eyes. “How do you still remember all of this?”

Oriko walked to Homura’s side of the room. “My powers showed me what you could become before we ever met. I had thought eliminating Kaname Madoka would prevent both worst case scenarios - that is, the birth of Kriemhild Gretchen, and.” Oriko gestured around the room. “This. I was wrong. While going after Kaname-san only caused you to continue repeating futilely, going after you would have taken your powers and your potential out of the equation. Subsequently destroying Kaname-san would have been easy .”

"You failed, Mikuni-san." Homura’s voice was full of disdain.

"And you didn’t?" Oriko stepped ever-closer to Homura. "In the end your wish didn’t even matter. In the end, she was still the one saving you. You would have been better off never becoming a magical girl, it wouldn’t have made a differ-"

“Shut up!" Akemi Homura snapped, in much the same fashion as she had the last day Oriko saw her. 

"In the end, she still had to sacrifice her own life, but this time it was to clean up your mess. And when she’d achieved peace in her new form you, tore her back down out of your own selfishness."

"You’re an idiot. She wasn’t happy like that, she-"

"She told you she wasn’t? That she couldn’t imagine being happy without her family and friends? I presume she also couldn’t imagine a world in which magical girls turned into witches, or where the person she trusted most would betray her, but that didn’t stop it from happening."

Homura’s stolid mask had more than shattered at this point - her frustration and disbelief was evident on her face. “Leave.”

"You think I’m lying. I happen to be very close to someone who was in the Law of Cycles, and she’s reported the goddess was nothing but happy." 

Homura looked ready to attack Oriko,summoning her odd crown-shaped soul gem to her hand, but then she paled. “The Law of Cycles. That’s where you came from. They sent more of you.”

"That’s absurd. I was never a witch." Oriko was inches from Homura now. She glanced at the other girl’s earring once again, and couldn’t help smiling.

Homura frowned and touched her ear, but flinched back from the cold metal. It was usually warm, buzzing with energy..

Her expression went slack. She removed the earring and stared down at the clear, colorless gem hanging from it. A moment passed. Two. The soul gem in Homura’s other hand began flashing violently- that is, before Oriko took it out of her hand and ran down the hall. Homura looked in that direction, then back down at her earring. She turned and ran toward the place she had been supposed to meet Madoka.

-

Homura didn’t think to wonder how the witch existed. She remembered how Sayaka and Nagisa had been able to summon and control theirs. The monstrosity of mannequin torsos towered over a girl with short dark hair, and at her feet-

Homura ran faster.

-

Oriko stared up at the witch- Margot, Kirika had said. She remembered the crushing anguish she’d felt upon seeing it the first time. How ironic, the witch being a major point in their new plan. She turned her gaze briefly to the corpse of Kaname Madoka, but looked away. As much as she knew this was necessary, and despite the fact she had killed her before, she felt remorse for the girl. She had only done what she thought was best. She’d saved so many. She didn’t deserve an end like this. But it was already over.

Akemi Homura arrived on the scene shortly, fruitlessly attacking them, and then falling to her knees and crying. Without her soul gem and her magic she couldn’t stand up to the witch. Even if she could, what would that do?

Oriko set said black-encased-purple gem on a ledge and nodded to Kirika. She raised her hand, and Margot raised her scythe. She lowered her hand, and the light left Akemi Homura’s eyes.

-

The closing of Margot’s barrier effectively disposed of both corpses, so Kirika followed Oriko down the road without having to carry anything. 

Kirika had descended from the Law of the Cycles, volunteering to go and check on Kaname-san and her escorts when they never came back. Oriko had been overjoyed to see her again; and the feeling was mutual, of course. Oriko had been having visions of Kirika, but dismissed them as wishful thinking. 

Oriko stared at Kirika as they walked back toward their shared apartment. They’d had to destroy Madoka and Homura because they were both volatile, unfit for their positions. But the things they’d done, the Law of the Cycles, and Homura’s collective confiscation of magical girl’s power, lived on. Oriko had always been right- of course she had. She was always meant to save the world. At long last, she saw no danger in the future- only peace. She took Kirika’s hand as they began climbing the stairs to their apartment. 


End file.
